Scottish Centre for China Research

When: Wednesday 11 February 2026 at 4:00pm–5.30pm 

Where: 208 McIntyre Building, University of Glasgow (please note this session is in-person only). 

 

Abstract: 

Late January saw the announcement that Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, two of China’s highest-ranking military generals, were under investigation. Analysts describe this as “the biggest political earthquake to hit the top brass of the People’s Liberation Army since…1989” (C. Johnson, 2026, Foreign Affairs) and a “Shakespearean moment in Chinese politics” (J. Czin and J. Culver, 2026, Foreign Affairs). Researchers have drawn on a wide variety of materials and approaches—visual media footage, “insider information,” purge patterns, contemporary elite politics, and historical evidence on Zhang Youxia’s and Xi Jinping’s fathers—to scour for something that might explain the “earthquake.” Others have attempted to think through possible implications for Chinese politics, China’s military, Taiwan, US-China relations, and the South China Sea. This in-person only seminar will address what we do (and don’t) know about this recent event, and how others have tried to study it. After sharing her own research on the “inspection announcement,” military institutional reform and Party-army relations, Holly will ask participants to think through together the different research approaches and assumptions used to examine this and other events at the highest levels of power in Chinese politics.

Short Bio: 

Dr Holly Snape is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Glasgow. Her research on the implications of the latest tremor to hit the Central Military Commission can be found in “Military Tremors and the Chairman in Charge,” Sinocism, forthcoming (Feb 2026).